


A child's nightmare

by Cerbero2518



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Boggarts, Hogwarts, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Night Terrors, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:21:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29651949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerbero2518/pseuds/Cerbero2518
Summary: Who found the boggart that Lupin used for the defense against the dark arts lesson and what is this person's greatest fear?





	A child's nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language. I did my best, please forgive my mistakes and feel free to suggest corrections.

English is not my first language. I did my best, please forgive my mistakes and feel free to suggest corrections.

A child's nightmare

At Hogwarts, even a simple lunch could turn into a sumptuous banquet. The House elves in the kitchens always exaggerated. Severus Snape, the potions master, often forced himself to skip lunch to avoid finding himself gorging on sweets as he had repeatedly seen the headmaster do. He preferred to have a quiet tea in the staff room away from the shouting of the students and the cakes. He was comfortably seated in the armchair closest to the fireplace, reading an old tome on the unforgivable curses he had found in the forbidden section of the great castle library.  
It was going to be a tough year: the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, had hired one of his old classmate, Remus Lupin, as the defence against the dark arts professor.  
Lupin was not a bad person, perhaps not particularly nice but certainly better than his old friends James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black. The first two had died because of the third, a bad story from which he could not be considered completely foreign. Besides that, Black had escaped from Azkaban that year and Severus was sure he would reunite with his friend at Hogwarts.  
But that wasn't the real problem, in reality Severus was terrified of his new colleague. He'd had to promise not to tell anyone about it, but he was sure it wasn't a good idea to have a werewolf as a teacher anyway. Once, several years ago, when they were still students, she had attacked him. A stupid joke that could have ended badly.  
What if some student was bitten that year? Lupin was taking the Wolfsbane Potion, but it was still experimental. He would keep an eye on him as much as possible, after all protecting the students was one of his duties.  
The damn place was freezing. Severus got up and walked to the large closet by the window, he was almost sure he had left a scarf there a few days before. He opened the two doors with both hands and within seconds he found himself backing away shouting: "Stay away from me, stay away from me".  
His father stood in front of him with an evil grin and wide eyes.  
He would hit him with his belt, humiliated, mocked. He had reached the opposite wall, he could no longer escape. Tobias was getting closer and closer, so similar to him and yet so different. "Please I didn't do anything, I didn't do anything." Severus was now curled up on the ground in tears. He would have hit him at any moment, he could already hear him take off his belt.  
At that moment someone entered the room, Severus couldn't see him because his eyes were closed, but he felt him approaching. The newcomer stepped between him and his father and pronounced "Riddikulus" in a confident voice.  
There was the sound of the closet doors slamming and then silence.  
Throughout that time Severus had remained on the ground with his eyes closed. He had panicked, had fallen into the trap of a stupid boggart. His father was a Muggle, he could never get into Hogwarts, and then he was probably dead or very far from there.  
"Are you okay Severus?"  
It was impossible for him not to recognize that voice, the stranger was, without a doubt, Albus Dumbledore. Severus got up slowly, dusting his pants with his hands.  
"Yes, Albus I'm fine. I'm sorry, but I really have to go" having said that, he hurried out of the room without even looking his saviour in the face. He was too ashamed of his behaviour, his worst fear was his father, he was pathetic, as always.  
Dumbledore had remained in the teachers' room. That boy was a death eater, a member of the order of the phoenix, a spy, he had been in the presence of terrible dark wizards but deep down he was still a child terrified of his abusive father. He did not think that Severus had been so defined by his childhood to the point that he considered it his greatest fear. He had endured terrible physical and psychological torture but what frightened him most was someone who was supposed to give him confidence. He had witnessed the nightmare of a child who had failed to become an adult, and he could do nothing to help him.


End file.
